It seems like every time I post a screenshot of my Lock or Home screen, I’m inundated with tweets, Facebook messages and even the odd Google+ message asking how I created the minimalist, clean effect. It looks very different to the stock iOS experience, and offers some features that Apple refuses to offer, and I rather like it!

After the most recent flurry of questions I thought it best to put together a short blog post together detailing what apps or tweaks I used, along with the important settings required to recreate my Home or Lock screen.

So, without further delay, let’s get started…

Lock screen

Let’s start off with the first thing you see when you begin to use your iPhone – the Lock screen.

The main change here is the addition of LockInfo 5. The way Apple handles notifications on the Lock screen as stock just doesn’t suit the way I work. Having notifications disappear after the handset has been unlocked, never to return, is a real pain for me. That’s why LockInfo’s persistent notifications is a must-have, and all its other features are just a bonus.

Those features, like the pull-down widget drawer, may have just been a bonus at first but have become more useful over time. Having quick access to Airplane mode for example, or being able to see how fast an app is downloading are things that I’ve come to rely on. Having the weather right there is nice, too, though far from a necessity

Speaking of widgets, that stats widget is N Stats Widget, and the one that houses quick toggles is the famous NCSettings. Both free. Both awesome. Share Widget and Compose handle quick composure of Tweets, Facebook updates, emails and iMessages but they’re only shown in Notification Center, rather than the Lock screen mainly due to some bugs with the keyboard not working in certain situations.

I also used SubtleLock to move the unlock slider and camera grabber to the bottom of the screen, and Winterboard theme ClearLockScreen to remove the background coloring. That works on the clock, too.

A slight aside, but the weather widget’s icons have been changed to Meteocons NC Weather, again via Winterboard. I just prefer the black & white look, you see.

Home screen

When it comes to my Home screen, I actually have two versions that I keep flicking between – both basically the same with one difference: a widget.

Icon-wise, it’s all stock. The only difference here is the addition of Springtomize 2 so that I can make the icons smaller than usual (sized at 65%), remove the labels, and have five icons per row. I know all the icons on my Home screen, and I use Spotlight to launch apps on other screens, so I don’t need the labels cluttering the view up. It all goes towards creating the minimalist feel I like so much, and I’ll never understand why Apple ships that high resolution screen only to slap huge icons on top of it.

So, about that widget that I keep flicking on and off depending on what mood I wake up in. It’s powered by Dashboard X 2.0 and the widget is the same one I have on the Lock screen and Notification Center, which is why I keep deciding not to use it. I’ve not found any battery or stability issues when having it there, it’s purely an aesthetic issue. Take it or leave it.

The whole thing is brought together by a perfectly black wallpaper on both the Lock and Home screens which, with a black iPhone 5, makes icons and notifications look like they’re floating in thin air. Awesome.

Hopefully that will clear the screenshots up for those trying to replicate my set up. There are countless themes and icon packs on Cydia, but they’re all about cluttering things up more than they need to be. For me, I want everything to get out of the way, showing the information I want and giving me access to what I want, when I want it.

Related Topics

Is there anyway to use LockInfo & Forecast? That’s what I’m trying to do.

johnsdoe00

LockInfo has every feature of Forecast. Why would you need both?

Prasoon Singh

Now that should be the lock screen for iOS 7!

Yash Gorana

NOPE

Lock screen in iOS 7 should be purely gesture based.
And they should use the iPad clock app as lockscreen. WILL BE EPIC.

SKATE4FREE

will have to wait more…

anonmuz

This looks sloppy, like notification center. iOS 7 needs to be cleaner than this to be considered a overhaul.

dedegarrido

This is horrible, really horrible… just… delete this post please.

Saúl Ga

It’s O.K. you don’t like it, but you don’t have to be a jerk

dedegarrido

LOL agree

Damian W

Probably if he added some nicely looking wallpaper, it would look much better.

thaNorthStar.com

Especially how he will never understand why Apple ships that high resolution screen only to slap huge icons on top of it.

hack_nug

First we complained about how iOS didn’t let us use a wallpaper. Now we’re using a black wallpaper.

I can see us asking for a flatter version of iOS and then using a theme to add gloss and textures everywhere.

J M

The great thing is that everyone has such different opinions on what makes a good lock or home screen. I liked the theme switch for the weather (which I just did myself), but I have to disagree with the pure black background, you might say that is “clean” look, but I just find it bland. Too each his own 🙂

dedegarrido

Totally agree with you.. that black background doesn’t look innovative or even attractive… just makes the LS boring.

thaNorthStar.com

Thats bcz he usually has a naked pic of his mom for his background but takes it down when he does posts & pretends he always uses a black wallpaper.

Why else would he say he’ll never understand why Apple ships that high resolution screen only to slap huge icons on top of it…if he isnt using that HD pic of his mom??

You mean because there are so many unique opinions about what people like for their theme? Kinda Gestapo thinking there…

sivkai

I’m a fan of all expect the lock screen. The ‘Slide to Unlock’ does not seem to fit in.

Damian W

It is because the knob slider and the text are too big comparing to the rest. It does not hold proportion anymore since SubleLock makes everything smaller except the knob. The tweak called Clear The Air fixes this issue a bit. But there should be a tweak that makes the knob smaller as well as the text. Clear The Air let you make both of them transparent or invisible.

Damian W

Instead of using Winterboard and clearlockscreen theme, just use the tweak Clear The Air. It is much better since it does not rely on winterboard and it has bunch of options to chose from. Giving the feeling of even more minimalistic look.

Damian W

I would add to lockscreen Grabby and Clear The Air of course.

thecalstanley

Looks awesome!

Don Reid

It would look nice if it wasn’t so boring. At least put a nice looking wallpaper, no offense Oliver.

thaNorthStar.com

He switches back to the HD naked pic of his mom when he is done doing a post

Don Reid

haha

Hanad

Thats to plain are you gouf?

Arnold Glenzer

Where can I get a black wallpaper?
Thanks,Arnold

Cameron Chao

seriously?

Arnold Glenzer

Yes really!!!!!!!

Sanil Chitrakar

Cover you camera lens with finger and take a picture.

Dady King

This is cool but not expecting this to be in ios7 I want way way better then current one.. My expactations are lot from apple ios7.. Don’t disappoint our legit apple user.

Benchmark Apps

Nice!

NeuroToxin

WTF!!!! People, c’mon, stating your opinion about something is all fine and dandy, but could you please for the love of pete, use proper punctuation and a full and complete sentence, not some garbled up crap that you just pull from your ass and think that you are getting your point across, you want someone to take you more seriously than please give what you were taught in school a try….proper grammar and punctuation are just a start…..SPELL CHECK works wonders as well.

Nestea80

You should take your own advice. You said all that in one HUGE run-on sentence with SIX commas.

Dan

Are you aware that your sentence IS a garbled up ‘ass pulled’ crap?

Damian W

he is trolling. Are you?

Kevin Butler

Now it looks like Android.

Dan

my android phones looks a hell of a lot better than that lol

Malan Raja

Personally i dislike this setup, but whatever floats your boat yeah? I think iDB should have an article where users submit their own setups to showcase it to others and hopefully we can all share it. I hope the iDB team memebers see this!

Johnny V

I Agree 100%. That Would Be A Great Way To Let Other People Knw Abt Ways To Theme Without Having To Search All Over Cydia Or The Web. i Myself Have Been Working On An Theme Now And I Would Love To Showcase It And Get Peoples Opinions And Views And Perhaps Even Tips On How To Make It Better 🙂

Michael Reilly

This inspired me to try out Lockinfo as they offer a 16 day trial. As a former user of ISX, I feel Lockinfo is too buggy. Love the idea of weather and widgets on the LS, but it just doesn’t go too well with Luna or SubtleLock.

Unlike others though, I do like your approach on the LockScreen and Springboard. I wonder how it feels to actually use though.

thaNorthStar.com

I found luna unnecessary bcz i like ‘my vibe’ & that has option to turn phone upside down to turn on ‘no notifications’.

Damian W

really nice look so how did you exactly achieve it? Where did you plug the png?

Does it sill work with Grabby? I love to be able to use Grabby as well. I will try to do the same thing today that you did.

I had a problem with the bottom row when I used maximum spacing for the rows. So tapping the icon like normal wasn’t working & had to tap on the very top of the icons, like halfway on the icon & halfway off the icon, to get them to open.. Not sure why but i guess they were too close to the dock icons..
You can see mine on twitter under @thaNorthStar. I dont shrink em more than 85-90% but i also increase the dock icons to 120-130% for my auxo switcher i expand them to the max & only have 4 icons per page in auxo..

thaNorthStar.com

He’ll never understand why Apple ships that high resolution screen only to slap huge icons on top of it…..then uses all black wallpaper…╒

Kifli Zan

your lockscreen is dope.

thaNorthStar.com

You can see mine on twitter if you search : @thaNorthStar

Edmond Koh

Thanks! I used JellyLock for my lockscreen. Looks clean and functional!

thaNorthStar.com

What did you use for your lockscreen clock?

I tried jellylock but now with immediate send& abstergo I found I wasnt using the other slots for other apps much so I got rid of it.
You can see mine on twitter @thaNorthStar

Edmond Koh

It’s chronos by Zooropalg 🙂

thaNorthStar.com

cool…
hey do u or anyone thnk itd be cool if I added a lockscreen blog on my site where people could upload lockscreen pics & comment & vote?

thaNorthStar.com

Why not hide the slider, slider text & knob when u can use activator to unlock with whatever u want??? I use 2 homebutton taps , its like magic.. & if u go xtra step & add swishtounlock , it makes it harder for people to figure out

Derek

What icon did you use for your folder in your dock? I really want to know, it’s just perfect!

Edmond Koh

Hey there! I used several tweaks like Springtomize to make my dock icon smaller. My overall theme is Ayecon and I just replaced the folder icon with Activator’s icon to simulate a button-like folder. Removed preview with Springtomize 🙂

Derek

Thanks! my iPhone is almost perfect now. Would you mind sharing your springboard wallpaper? I like it.

thaNorthStar.com

Yours is cool. You can see mine on twitter @thaNorthStar
Im trying to find a better theme for the clock & i only think yours would look better if you used oliver’s mom instead of the deer for your background..

fl0manel

Just wanna say, that is a lot of notifications…

Edmond Koh

Looks great! Wazi theme?

I would love to mod my phone the way you do, however I want to retain my phone as stock-like as possible 😉